


This Really Is Some Bullshit Right Here

by Th13f0fH0p3



Category: Homestuck
Genre: AU, Child Neglect, F/F, F/M, Homophobia, Homophobic Slurs, Humanstuck, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Multi, SBURB/SGRUB
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2019-06-14 04:22:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 16,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15380556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Th13f0fH0p3/pseuds/Th13f0fH0p3
Summary: 5,357 years ago, Midworld was created. The space between the two worlds of Earth and Heron, Midworld was filled with magic and science. Now, after years of peace, another war is on the rise, without the public's knowledge. Rose Lalonde, a student at Skaia University, must navigate her way through double lives as a college student but also as the leader of an extremely illegal group of people living under the city as she uncovers deep secrets about the city of her birth.





	1. Prolouge

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Homestuck](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/399630) by Andrew Hussie. 



Incident Report 141 

Heron XX35 - Incident Code 000

13:03

* * *

At approximately 12:00, an unknown experiment started in lab, “Alpha Enterprises”. Experiment continued smoothly till 13:00 where experiment started to go out of control. Security cameras outside of the room where the experiment was conducted show the steel door being blown back into the wall. Before the security cameras are torn off the walls, a short clip shows a swirling blue mass which is currently unidentifiable in the middle of the room. At 13:03, cameras placed farther away from the door record a loud suction sound, and then a loud pop. Afterwards everything goes quiet. A squad of five lead by Lieutenant Matthew Hunter arrive at 13:12 and investigate. Initial observations show that no one is left. The room in which the experiment was held had equipment scattered around and converging in the middle of the room. Backup was called and after several technicians came, they found only potent residue of dark and space magics in the middle of the room where the swirling blue mass was seen.

An estimated 134 employees worked at “Alpha Enterprises”, however it appears that all were sucked into the blue mass. 

-I.O

* * *

 

Incident Report 403

Earth XX35 - Incident Code ???

11:53

* * *

At 11:53, Los Angeles 911 Dispatch receives a call.

MAN 1: You have to get out here right now there’s some really weird shit going down out here!

OPERATOR: Calm down sir, what’s-

MAN 1: There some weird ass lights in the desert and some of my buddies have disappeared and there’s like, a huge blue shit or whatever just help us!

OPERATOR: Sir, where are you?

MAN 1: I don’t fucking know! Uh-

MAN 2: We’re in Mojave National Park, I don’t have to tell you where exactly because this light is shooting into the sky like a fuckin’ spotlight.

The call abruptly ends after MAN 2 speaks with a resounding boom. Detective Gavin Burrow and his partner, Detective Katherine Lambert, answer the call and head over to Mojave National Park. At 12:48 the dash cam shows them approaching Mojave, a bright blue light shooting into space. At 12:59, Detectives Gaven Burrow and Katherine Lambert arrive on the scene, beer cans strewn everywhere and music blaring. The dash cam shows them getting out of the car, guns drawn, cautiously making their way to a swirling blue mass. At 13:03, the detectives disappear suddenly along with the blue mass. Backup does not arrive until 14:23. The detectives are nowhere to be found.

As well as the two detectives, thirteen others went missing. Incident Report 751 covers the missing personnel.

-A.Q

* * *

 

“Can anyone tell me the origin of Necromancy?” The teacher at the front of the room stands before his desk, staring out at the bored group of seniors, eyes blank.

After a few hot, awkward minutes, a hand raises up from the back of the class, “Yes, Mr. Egbert?”

“It originated sometime during The Great War Of Opposition when um, they needed more troops so they reanimated dead ones?” John Egbert gave an uncomfortable buck toothed smile.

Sighing, the teacher wiped the sweat off his forehead, “Is that a question, Mr. Egbert? Or a statement?”

“Uh…” His smile dropped. “A statement, Mr. Ecklund.”

Snickers started up as Ethan Ecklund said loudly, “Well, despite how stupid you usually are, it seems that this heat is doing you some good by melting your brain into something smarter. You are correct, Mr. Egbert.”

John slid down in his seat as the bell rang, but it did not deter the boy behind him from slamming his palm into his back as he headed to the door despite the protests of the teacher, “Nice going, faggot!”

Wheezing over his desk, his neighbor stood up loudly with her seat screeching as it scraped across the floor and climbed onto her desk. John looked up just in time to see the entire class seated, watching as his friend threw herself off her desk and tackled the boy to the ground.

“Ms. Lalonde!” Mr. Ecklund yelled as the entire class cheered on the short girl as she punched the boy again and again.

After a few more punches, Rose Lalonde stood, wiped her bloody fists on her skirt, gazed around the room with an angry stare, and walked out of the room just as security came into the room via the other door. With the help of one of his friends, the boy, Markus, stood up, and as he was being pulled away by security, stared John dead in the eye.

“You tell that bitch I’ll get her back for this! She’s a dead woman and so are you!” He screamed, blood running down his face, nose surely broken.

 

Turns out Markus had the opportunity to tell Rose before John got the chance to, seeing as they got stuck in the same office for literally hours on end. The only voice the could be heard was Markus’ screaming, Rose’s voice most likely a calm, reasonable tone, and the principal’s most likely a nervous trill.

From his side, John’s sister simmered, holding the piece of paper that had been taped to his back, reading  _ Twinkle Twinkle Little John, How I Wonder How Gay You Are, Up Upon That Dick So High, Like A Faggot In The Sky. _

“I cannot believe this! Markus better not get away with it, enough is enough It’s complete bullcrap!” Jade crumpled up the piece of paper and threw it into the nearest trashcan.

At her volume, Dave frowned slightly and put his hand on her shoulder, “Hey, I get your mad, but watch your fucking language. Besides, even if he doesn’t get in administrative trouble, at least Rose beat his ass into the ground. I heard all the cool gossip and man, has her reputation just fucking shot through the roof. Everyone knew she was bonafide badass, but now no one's gonna mess with any of us anymore, cause her reputation is going to pass to college and we’ll all be cool kids, although I’m already a cool kid. She’s like, I dunno, the John Cena of this stinking pile of High School WWE fuckups. The twin sibs, coolest cats in this goddamn school along with our friends, the coolest dogs in school, oh hell yeah you know it, other twin sibs John and Jade.”

John stared at his best bro, “But I thought you were the John Cena of this school?”

“Uh well actually I’m The Rock of this school, cause I’m really buff and am a great actor and shit,” Dave fidgeted with his hands, making how obviously nervous he was even more obvious.

Snickering, Jade put her hands together and sighed, “I totally forgot you’re a theater nerd. By the way, the last musical was really lit. I can’t believe you got the leading male role too!”  
Pulling a face, Rose’s twin died a little inside, “Okay first off, never say lit again. And second off, you best believe I got the leading role cause I’m the best actor aw hell ye-”

The door to the office opened and out stepped a pissed off Markus, who immediately stomped off without even looking at the small group. A few seconds later and Rose appeared, blazer thrown over her shoulder, popping a bubblegum bubble, hands bandaged, and looking more than a little annoyed.

Once she noticed her group of friends however, the expression on her face changed to become slightly guilty, “Hey, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you guys wait for me.”

“What? Dude come on you helped me out and like, now everything’s okay…” John’s voice trailed off as she made a face. “It is, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, everything is fine. It’s literally the last day of school so they can’t do anything. Not to mention no one wants to mess with me legally or ruin my chances of getting into college since my mother would find some way to make them end up on the street,” Rose shrugged as they exited the building,

“Oh, yeah geez I completely forgot about how ruthless your mom can be,” the dorky black haired teen grinned. “Uh, speaking of college, where are all of you going?”

“Skaia University,” his three friends said at once.

“Oh uh, hey, me too!” John yelled.


	2. No One Is Really Surprised That Vriska Is Initially An Antagonist In This Fanfiction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A heist goes kind of wrong, oh yeah, Rose does illegal shit like steal things, people get naked (not really), and school starts.

A heist isn't as hard to pull off as people think it is. Only a few things are necessary. A team, a rough plan, a target, and a little inside knowledge. Given that there are tons of desperate people, finding a team is easy, and within that team, you are guaranteed to have at least one person who's not a complete idiot, and someone who's done something like this before. For the inside knowledge, it's even easier to obtain, as nearly every single soul is able to be bribed, and sometimes all it takes is a sloppily placed threat. No one wants to risk messing with someone who can turn their insides out at the lazy snap of their fingers. 

So you have a team, experienced, all clever in their own right, a leader who doesn't need to have a flexible plan, because they know exactly what's gonna happen, a wealth of inside knowledge, and certain targets? The heist should go without a hitch, as the others have, because if you have a set up like that, you've definitely gone on other heists before.

Of course, certain targets are harder than others, but it shouldn't matter because of the aforementioned boss of a setup. Except, of course it does, because the team is made up of a bunch of kids who come from shitty backgrounds and who are desperate for love and companionship. So, as the group of four, mid heist, has something go wrong, sure as hell they're all confused. 

Lights flicker on, for a brief terrifying moment, a rumble shaking the building, and anyone less experienced would have freezed, but they don't.

“Seer?” Maid whispers, slipping her hands into the bookshelf, closing her fingers around a soft book cover.

Behind her, Rouge slowly straightens up and turns to protect Maid, the claws on her gloves sliding out.

A few seconds pass, filled with controlled breathing and intense concentration, a voice says into her ear, “Copy, Maid. We’ve got confirmation of an unknown at six o'clock, be on guard, do not abscond. Looking into it, entity three hundred yards from your location, remain calm and keep talking to a minimum.”

By the time Seer finishes, the worn book is in Maid’s hands, being slipped into a similarly worn but intact and well loved backpack already full of other stolen goods. Rouge is impressively relaxed, Maid sees as she turns, but ready to act at any time. As she picks up the backpack and slips it on, her eyes scan the dark in front of her. The library is a mostly open, gigantic space, although a relatively small part of the entire building. Which means if the lights flicker on again, the unknown will be sure to see them unless they, or it, is blind. Neither the Rouge or Maid have the equipment to see in the dark, as usually Rouge's unusual aptitude for seeing in the dark is more than enough, but after the first hundred or so yards, vision is limited to shapes and silhouettes. Also, despite the overwhelming success of their heists, they never have enough money for anything other than paying off debts.

“Unable to confirm identity, probably a human, however do not engage. Extraction is the only option. If you didn't get the book then don't worry. Mage is headed to point C, meet him at the location as soon as possible, but do not risk exposure,” there is something within Seer’s voice that makes Maid afraid, and it is clear Rouge hears it too, but she turns back to Maid and grabs her arm gently.

The two make there way to the left exit of the library, where, four hundred yards away, will be a window, where Mage is waiting. The steel claws in Rouge’s right glove retracts as she moves her hand to the Maid's, and leads her along, the two holding hands. Maid isn't entirely blind in this darkness, but she's able to react faster this way if something prompts them to run. For a brief, idiotic, amateur moment, Maid thinks about how they must look like school children, afraid of getting lost on a school field trip, forced to hold hands as per the buddy system. It's in this brief lapse, that the tug on her hand comes, sharp but not hard enough to make her stumble in normal circumstances. It does now though, while Rouge has transitioned into a quiet and smooth run, Maid clumsily stumbles into a too slow jog. She fixes her pace quickly, but the damage of her footwork, slapping the carpet just a little too loud, has become apparent in an instant.

A crackle of vibrant red lights up the room, illuminating it in an eerie blood color, coming approximately three hundred twenty yards from their current location. Faster, Rouge slams into the door with her shoulder, a resounding boom spreading throughout the room as it falls heavily to the floor. Maid jumps over it with ease, and on the other end, Rouge looks over her shoulder.

“Seer, copy. Extraction necessary. ETA?” Rouge slows down a little to match Maid, with the added weight and already slower pace, Rouge can be much faster than her.

“Copy, Rouge. ETA as fast as you can get there. Mage has counter measures in place as soon as you come within two hundred yards. Next two minutes fuzzy,” Seer’s voice, monotone, is betrayed by the way her voice shakes ever so slightly.

“Maid, copy. Hand package to Rouge and haul ath,” the familiar lisp of the fourth member rings throughout the connection.

Slipping off the backpack and handing it to Rouge in one fluid movement, speeding them up to Maid’s maximum speed, she says over the noise behind them, “Copy, Mage. Package transferred, closing in on two hundred yard mark.”

Before Mage can respond, Rouge interrupts after another look over her shoulder, “Mage, copy. Things are about to get a little furry in a few seconds.”

From behind them, the other door and surrounding wall blasts outwards toward them, initial debris narrowly missing the pair. A second later and a large piece of plaster embeds itself in Maid’s right leg, rendering it ineffective. In one swoop, Rouge scoops up Maid, bridle style, and crosses into the two hundred yard radius of point C. The strange fizz and electricity of passing through a psionics barrier reverberates through Maid’s and Rouge’s bodies, resulting in an involuntary shudder. At a hundred thirty seven yards to the extraction point, the barrier lights up red and blue as something slams into it. At seventy three yards to the extraction point, the barrier falls. At twenty two yards to the extraction point, the window closest to the point shatters, the silhouette of Mage, rim lit by the street lights and moons outside, one eye crackling out red energy mirroring electricity, and the other, the same, but blue. In his hand is the outline of goggles, and now that they're off, Rouge moves to the side of the hallway. At twenty yards to the extraction point, red and blue psionics shoot from Mage’s eyes and slam with amazing force into the unknown entity. Not looking back, the pair close in on point C, Maid grabbing the Mage as he collapses, and Rouge throws herself, along with two other people, out the window.

For a few terrifying seconds, they plummet toward the ground thirteen stories below them, before they hit something very solid that is not the ground, and are pulled into relative safety. Rouge, Maid, and a barely conscious Mage lie on top of a shaking Seer. The four stay like that for a few minutes, feeling the hum of silent yet powerful engines propel them towards true safety.

Then they're all crying, Mage sucking in shaky breaths, Rouge crushing him in a hug, Seer pressing a kiss to Maid’s sweaty forehead as she shakes.

“Hey, ith okay, ith okay. We're alive, Nepeta, hey come on,” Mage says, words raspy.

From the other side of the hanger, comes rushed words, “I'm sorry I'm so sorry I should've known I'm sorry it was my job to protect you two I'm sorr-”

“Rose,” comes Maid’s stern, trembling voice.

“Aradia we could've lost you two and I'm so-” 

Silenced quickly by a palm gently making contact with her cheek and a smiling Aradia, Rose collapses forwards, shaking, prompting a similarly shaking Aradia to catch her and bring her up in a hug.

“I swear you two better not be piling over thhere!” Mage yells at them through tears.

“Oh fuck off, Sollux!” Aradia retorts, feeling the silent laughter of Rose shake her body even more.

Nepeta hisses out a laugh too, tension slowly dissolving in the shared feeling of familial companionship that had slowly built up over the past few years of working together. Even Sollux, tired and cynical Sollux, starts laughing. They all collapse back onto the hanger floor, laughter reverberating through the small space. The high pitched giggle of Nepeta, the unbecoming hissing snort of Sollux, the whimsical laugh of Aradia, and the deep chuckle of Rose. All in all, they make a pretty weird team, one that definitely shouldn't work together in a scenario like this, shouldn't be as close as family, much less friends. But they did, a certain oddity, no longer together just for survival, but kinship.

Hours later they sit around a table, glancing at each other in silence, on the occasion darting their eyes down to the closed backpack between them.

“Tho,” Sollux starts, serious. “You musth all be wondering why I gathhered you here today.”

From across the table, Rose nods, equally serious, “Yes, please do tell, oh wise Psiioniic.”

Sollux stands slowly, drawing himself up and puffing out his chest, but Rose does not crack, even though he is hilariously short, “I have brought you all here for one reathon and one reathon only.” Nepeta does her best to be serious and looks at him, although her eyes scream amusement as he says as dramatically as he can, arms thrown outwards, “Ith time for a thleepover!”

Aradia’s eye twitches, and then she bursts out laughing, quickly followed by Nepeta, then Sollux, and soon after, Rose.

“Okay but seriously guys, we'll probably have to pull an all-nighter for this haul,” the group's leader says, and everyone groans.

Nepeta pipes up quickly, “So basically a sleepover, purrfect!”

Rose looks like she's about to say something about that, but just shrugs and says, “I suppose just because we have to pull and all-nighter doesn't mean we don't get to have a little fun.”

Aradia’s eyes light up immediately, “So we can have popcorn and stuff and be in our pajamas?”

Without waiting for an answer, half of the group vacate the room, leaving Rose and Sollux wondering what happened. The two share a look before he gets up and exits the room too, albeit much slower than the other two. Rose sighs, before standing, glancing at the bag, and exiting the room. The door opened up to an open living area, a soft rug covering a wood floor, plush yet old sofas in a semi circle around a fireplace where a large screen stands. The fireplace is lit now, at this time of the year, it's necessary for them to not to become uncomfortably cold. To the left, an open kitchen, where a counter and some bar stools sit, separating the living room and kitchen. To the right is a corridor leading to a bathroom and a large bedroom they all share. The ship they were in previously lies in the hanger, at the end of the corridor.

Running out of the bedroom is Nepeta, wearing paw slippers, her blue beanie with a white cat’s face, and fuzzy olive pajamas. She's in the kitchen in a second, thrusting a bag of popcorn into the microwave. Smiling at her antics, Rose heads to the bedroom and opens the door. Sollux is in the middle of buttoning up his custom made half purple, half yellow pajama shirt. His pants are similarly colored, although they're already on. Aradia on the other hand, is still looking through her pile of clothes she keeps underneath her bed.

“Need help with that?” Jumping, Aradia finds Rose standing over her, an amused smirk on her face.

Pouting slightly, Aradia retorts, “What makes you think I need help?”

“You're not in your pajamas yet?” Rose shrugged as she got on her knees and started rifling through the large pile of clothes Aradia had pulled out.

Within a few seconds, Rose pulled out a red t-shirt and a pair of shorts from the pile, turning to Aradia with a smug look.

“Oh shut up, you used your powers or whatever,” she stood after taking the clothes, tossed them on top of her bed, and took off her shirt. 

They'd all changed into more comfortable clothes after the heist, although the clothes they wore had been comfortable, they were soaked with sweat and reminders of what had happened. As a consequence, the normal layers of clothes and protection were gone, the only barrier between skin and open air a shirt. It wasn't like Rose was unused to seeing Aradia naked, or in this instance, half naked. Or really any of the small group naked. She had a bra on, obviously, but that did little to hide the toned, scarred skin of her stomach and bare arms. Aradia was one of the few people she knew who managed to be tanned, and the only who had an unhindered tan. From the floor, Rose watched as Aradia slid off her pants, aware yet not caring of her gaze. A bandage was wrapped around her upper thigh, a small portion stained red, and it only reminded them all of what had happened earlier. The years of heist had built up scars and muscle for all of them, constantly in danger, they needed to be able to do pretty much anything they could in order to stay alive when things got bad. It was practical, but also, admittedly, visually appealing. Anyone, really, regardless of sexual orientation, would say that Aradia was attractive, all of them were attractive in their own rights, but Aradia the most. 

Lost in her own thoughts, she hadn't noticed she was staring at Aradia all the time she was getting dressed until she looked at her and teased, “Like what you see, Rose?”

“Yeah, actually,” Rose snapped out of her thoughts and smirked up at Aradia, who grinned back.

Suddenly a shirt covered Rose's face, coupled with a disgruntled Sollux muttering, “Stop flirting with my girlfriend, athhole. And while you're at it, thtop checking her out.”

Aradia snorted, covering her face in embarrassment as she continued to laugh. Shirt successfully peeled off her face, Rose turned her intense, unnatural violet gaze to Sollux’s goggle covered eyes.

With a shark like grin, Rose shrugged as she got up, “I mean, Aradia is the one who flirted with me first, Sollux.”

Before her boyfriend could say anything more, Aradia intervened, “Ah come on you guys, I just didn’t want to seem like a creep when I did the same.”

“You mean ogle that flat ath?” Came the disgruntled Mage again.

“Excuse you, Mr. Captor, but ac thinks Ms. Rose has a purrfectly nice ass!” Nepeta stook her head in, no doubt hearing their conversation through the thin walls.

“Thank you, dear Nepeta,” Rose bowed dramatically, winking as she did so.

Giggling, Nepeta left the room as Aradia continued to laugh and Sollux continued to roll his eyes, “You two need to get a room.”

“This is the only one really suitable for that sort of thing so if you're suggesting that Nepeta and I should have sex then-” Rose started, tugging off her pants and throwing it into a hamper.

“Ew, no, groth Lalonde. Like, super groth,” Sollux wrinkled his nose in dismay.

“You're the one who suggested it, Sollux,” Aradia sat down on her bed, her gaze clearly on Rose.

Soon enough, her shirt found its way into the hamper as well, leaving a grinning Aradia and a annoyed Sollux, who quickly exited the room, leaving the two women alone. They remained in silence as Rose dressed until Aradia stood and walked over to her, wrapping her in a hug.

“What’s this for?” The Seer held onto her shirt with one hand as she accepted the hug.

Her partner shrugged and said, “None of us hug enough, so, I thought, why not?”

After a few minutes of not letting go, Rose sighed, “This is just about my boobs isn’t it.”

Groaning slightly, the taller of the two disengaged the hug and grabbed her friend by the hand, leading her out of the room.

Sollux and Nepeta were already sitting on the sofas, the backpack in the middle of the coffee table. Sollux had traded his goggles for glasses, and pushed them up in greeting as the two walked in and sat on the couch opposite. Without touching the backpack, Rose broke the seals protecting the bag, and Nepeta stood to distribute the books inside.

“Tho, what ethactly are we looking for here?” Sollux flipped through one of the books he'd gotten, which wasn't titled, none of them were, although all the covers were completely unique, which made things only slightly easier.

As she ran her fingers over the cover, the Seer shrugged slightly, “Things relating to Crocker Corp, Dark Magics, The Midnight Crew, The Felt, anything that can get us an edge up on what's going on in this city.”

 

“You're leaving?” Aradia complained, watching Rose get dressed.

“Classes start today, you know that. I'll see you in the hallways. Speaking of which, you should wake the other two and get going,” Rose shrugged on the button up dress shirt.

The amused brunette watched her friend fumble with the buttons for a minute before taking pity on her and got up to help her button the shirt up, “How do you manage to put on your clothes when I'm not around?”

“Usually I just go around naked,” Rose muttered, watching Aradia help her into her clothes like a child.

Giving a small smile, Aradia finished buttoning up the shirt and started on the gold tie, “I never knew you were so indecent, my dear Rose.”

Smiling back, the light mage slid on the blazer just as Aradia finished, “Well it's not like I've had to wear the actual uniform before, none of us have. Anyways I've gotta go, but again, I'll see you in the hallways.”

Aradia pouted angrily as she folded her arms, but made no attempt to stop her. Meanwhile, Sollux and Nepeta were still sleeping, curled up around each other on the floor, so there were no more goodbyes as Rose slipped out the hangar door. The hangar was just a giant room with mechanical equipment to fix the ship, and of course the ship itself. One of the walls was actually a giant garage door the opened for the ship to go out, but there was a smaller, human sized door, leading to the fire escape. It was there that she exited, backpack secured to her back, uniform crisp, tie flying in the wind. Three hundred feet above the ground, in a rundown building too far from the heart of the city to be of much notice, stands one Rose Lalonde, and she sees all of the city in one look.

Skyscrapers sprawl haphazardly across the horizon, tons and tons of glass glinting in the morning light. The sunrise is obscured by thousands, maybe millions, of flying metal cases people call hovercars, speaking to the imaginative minds naming things in Vera. Most of them are transports and cargos, as a lot of people can't afford the air space. A rail system chugs it's way across the city, winding its way through buildings and streets. Even in the outskirts, it's still pretty busy out on the streets. Electronic billboards flash ads, traffic lights blink red and green and yellow and then red again, people jaywalk, swear as they almost get run over. So much concrete, yet green surrounds the city, engulfing it from the outside, and spreading its roots on the inside. Parks are commonplace, grass runs next to wide sidewalks, and trees loom over pedestrians. Over the loudspeakers comes the weather report for the week.

“Today, expect clouds, high winds, and fog the entire day. The low is 45 degrees Fahrenheit and the high is 56 degrees Fahrenheit. Tomorrow…” The pleasant yet disembodied female voice continues the weather for the rest of the week before shutting off, leaving the gentle hum of millions of electronics running, of the honking, of the footsteps of someone who's late to work.

Rose waits for a second longer, watching the people below try to commute to work, before making her way down the rusted staircase one step at a time. It's not like she couldn't fling herself off the side and stop herself from becoming another number in the deaths by suicide this month, but she never does. She takes her time, breathing in the fresh air, enjoying the feeling of the Sun rise over the tops of concrete to grace her with its presence. Jumping the fifteen feet to the ground, she walks out of the alley nonchalantly, and heads to the nearest rail station. From the sides of the sidewalk, street vendors call out to her and other commuters, but she waits till she reaches a street taco stand where a tall but nervous boy stands wearing an apron.

“L-Lalonde!” His brown Mohawk shines in the morning light as he waves, his hand low.

Rose nods a greeting and stands in front of the cart, “Good morning, Tavros. We better get going if we don't want to be late.”

With a lopsided smile, he takes off his stained apron and gently sets it next to a shorter but older man, whose hair covers his face to the point it's surprising he can see, “I gotta go, stay safe, Mr. Mituna.”

The light skinned man grumbles out something along the lines of fuck you, but it sounds like he has a worse lisp than Sollux. Tavros just nods and mutters an apology as he picks his bag to follow Rose.

As they walk, the Seer inquires, “How's the family been?”

“Huh?” He jumps slightly, scratching his face for a second before responding. “Everything's good. Good, yeah. Mr. Mituna is getting a little better but it's still a work in process. The doctors are doing what they can for him. Dad works late, so I don't see much of him but that's just how it is nowadays I guess. And Rufio, well, he helps Dad at his work, but they still won't let me help, I don't even know what they do but he stays at work just as late as Dad does.”

“I'm glad to hear your boss is doing better, it's been a while, huh?” Rose inserted her I.D into the terminal, waiting for the green light and mechanical voice to verify her identity before stepping away.

Tavros took a moment to move his shaking hand up to the slot, “Yeah, he got worse for a long time, but now that he's getting better hopefully it'll continue.”

It's hard to hear him, but Rose listens as well as she can and they wait in silence for the tram to come. A few minutes after, as the terminal shakes, a blonde haired girl comes barreling through the crowd towards them. She shoves Tavros so hard away from the terminal he falls on his back, and inserts her I.D into the terminal roughly, pulling the card out as soon as the green light shows, but it's not soon enough to stop the voice from sounding.

“Welcome, Vr-,” is all it manages before the girl punches it.

Immediately Rose's expression becomes guarded, gaze analysing. The girl stands at roughly 5 feet 4 inches, barely taller than Rose, was all skin and bones, and didn't seem to have much muscle or fat. Her uniform was wrinkled, the tie not even done, a coffee stain on her button up shirt, and her glasses have the left lense blacked out, where they sit crooked on her face. Her expression is twisted into annoyance, her blue eyes are narrowed, and her hair has noticeable blue streaks which are all tangled. All in all, she looks like she just woke up and Rose could take her without any difficulty. Except her tie is a midnight blue and her left eye, which is covered by the blacked out lense, radiates danger, and her left arm is a unique metal prosthetic. This girl is majoring in Mind Control, and mind controllers are dangerous, even to a Light Major. 

“Oh hey, didn't see you there, loser,” she turns to Tavros with a vicious grin on her face. “Why are you on the ground? Wind blow you over?”

“L-leave me alone, Vriska,” Tavros doesn't move, hardly even breathes.

“Oh so you're finally standing up for yourself? You want to see how that turns out for you?” The danger emanating from Vriska flares up as she tries to get a grip on Tavros’ mind.

And then the tram arrives and the shaking teen whines in pain and then losing all control of Tavros, Vriska stands in shock.

Rose brushes past her and helps Tavros up and into the tram, which is when Vriska decides to ask, “Did you do that?”

A hand lashes out and grabs the Light Major’s arm and pulls her close, “Who the hell are you?”

Cold violet eyes meet a cerulean one, “Rose Lalonde.”

“No I mean-” Vriska sneers.

“All passengers clear from the entrances,” comes a voice from their left.

Swearing, Vriska clambers in, Rose following slowly. A lot of students have already gotten on the tram from other parts of the city, but even so, everyone has a comfortable amount of space. Tavros sits next to a girl who is glaring at Vriska as she noisily shoves people aside for the best spot. Her jade eyes hide a fury which makes it clear she has a history with the Mind Controlling Major. Students chat softly to each other, filling the tram with a casual attitude.

Rose leans against the wall of the tram across from Tavros and the girl, eyes following Vriska, who glares at her from across the vessel, “You know her?”

Both the girl and Tavros look at her, but her friend speaks first, “Yeah, that's Vriska Serket, she's a b-bitch… thanks for saving me back there.”

Sliding her calculating gaze from the alleged bitch to Tavros, Rose frowns, lips painted black, “Vriska Serket? As in the Vriska that pushed you off a cliff and paralyzed you from the waist down? The Vriska that cost you around a million vectors in prosthetics? That Vriska?”

“Well, yeah, that’s her,” Tavros’ eyes widen. “And I know you’re thinking about fighting her and getting revenge but don’t! She blinded her best friend by making her stare into the sun!”

“I know that but-” She glances back at Vriska, who is still glaring at her.

“Forgive me for interrupting, but my name is Kanaya Maryam, and Tavros is correct. Vriska Serket is extremely dangerous,” the girl sitting next to him said tentatively.

Rose’s eyes narrow in scrutiny but is calmed by a stuttering Tavros, “Kanaya’s cool, she's a childhood friend of mine.”

“Oh, I see. Well, nice to meet you, Kanaya. My name is Rose Lalonde.” Giving a small bow, the Seer spoke. “I suppose we can only hope we don't see her much before she gets expelled for killing some poor kid.”

“That poor kid might be you if you don't shut the fuck up about it!” Came a gruff voice from her right. 

“Now, Karkat,” Kanaya started.

“No! Seriously, this kid is just begging to be thrown unceremoniously into Xale River at such epic speeds that she breaks the sonic barrier on her way to hell! It's a wonder she's lived till now, as she's fucking with the most dangerous bitch on this damned tram! Watch as she gets us all blown from the sky as Vriska throws a hissy fit! It's best we all throw ourselves out the window now so that maybe we have a chance at living as opposed to the zero percent chance of it if we stay humoring this douche muffin who thinks she can beat the bitch!” Bloodshot eyes bore holes into Rose’s own.

The tram is silent at the short boy’s outburst, and everyone's gaze is on him. From the other end, stands a pissed off Vriska, who starts to make her march towards the four.

“Oh great! Good job past Karkat, you really have a knack for fucking things up!” Karkat screamed at himself just as Vriska grabbed Rose’s collar and raised her a few inches off the ground, slamming her into the door.

“Listen here, punk. You think you can fight m-” Abruptly cut off by the ding of the overhead speaker system and the door swinging open, Vriska slammed face first into the ground.

Narrowly avoiding having being sandwiched between a bony Vriska and a hard ground, Rose smoothed her button up, turned from Vriska, and walked away. Kids were already streaming out from the other trams, but the none of the kids from Rose’s got out for a few minutes except for Kanaya, Karkat, and a hesitant Tavros. 

“Um, hey, Rose!” Tavros half yelled as he caught up to her, followed by Karkat and Kanaya. “How did you do that?”

Taking her confused expression as a cue to fill in a few details, Karkat spoke, still sounding angry but also humbled, “The whole way we were on that gogforsaken tram, and especially when she was up in your face, tendrils of her mind were making their fucking way to you but you didn't seem to be affected. Not to mention…”

“You just publicly humiliated Vriska and weren't immediately murdered,” finished Kanaya, looking at her manicured nails with a slight frown.

Blinking, Rose found the hooks of Vriska’s mind control in the shield surrounding her mind, “Oh, is she going to become a problem now?”

“A problem? No she's not going to become a problem, she is going to become an annoyance until she snowballs into a catastrophe where she will then murder the fuck out of you!” Karkat’s volume reaches a crescendo, screaming at the top of his lungs at the last word, drawing the attention of nearby students from other trams.

Rose stops walking and just says, “Well that’s not good.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh I've spent literally half a year planning this story out and another few months just writing different versions of this "first" chapter and I've got to say I like it a lot. My writing tends to go downhill after the first few chapters and I will try to refrain from doing that but if I do someone please tell me. I actually think this next chapter already went downhill but we'll see won't we


	3. Oh Yeah, If You Like Bro Strider, This Really Isn't The Fanfiction For You and None Of My Fanfictions Ever Will Be

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time skips, unfortunate timing, and a sneak peak into the darker side of Rose's life.

You’re name is Dave Strider and you’re currently not sure where you are. You know you exited you’re apartment about an hour ago but you just cannot figure out how long you’ve been running. Well, running? More like hurridley limping away. And exited? More like fell from the roof onto the fire escape and decided to make your escape, although your foe was a lot more dangerous than fire.

This isn’t the first time you’ve had the first opportunity to run away but it is the first time you actually tried to. You were too scared before, hell, you’re way too scared now, but you’re also really fucking tired of all of this and now you had to leave. You’ll come back, right? Of course you will, you wouldn’t want to leave him alone for too long, it has to be cold in the apartment with the heater broken and it being winter. Speaking of which, you’re currently limping through a whiteout with no shoes and just a shirt and some pants which means that you are also really fucking freezing. Man, this really was a bad idea, you should just go back to him now. He probably won’t be too mad, you’ll probably be okay. No, you can’t, not just yet. You have to let Rose know that you’re okay, that your phone just broke and nothing happened and that she doesn’t have to worry. But after that, you’ll go back to him because you know he loves you. Right now, however, you need to find a payphone and a quarter and you’ll be good to go.

It takes you approximately fifteen seconds to realize that you’ve stumbled onto some kind of school campus when you see an annoyed guy emerging from the whiteness with a full backpack and notebooks in his arms. The lights from the building behind him are the only thing you see, so you head toward them and find yourself in a lobby. The floor is nicely tilled and the decor reveals it to be an expensive place, but there’s no one at the desk. You take off your sunglasses briefly to look at the list on the front desk. There’s room numbers and two corresponding names. At the top of the page is “SKAIA UNIVERSITY - DORM C”, which coincidentally, is your sister’s dorm. Score. You scan the stack of pages until you find her name listed under Room 324, but it appears like she doesn’t have a roommate, again, score.

You start to head to the elevator when you realize something. If you go up as you are now, she’ll freak out and you don’t want her to know, ever. But what choice do you have? Maybe you could find a piece of paper and a pen and write a note for her… no, that’s too weird. Why would you… oh for fucks sake you bled all over the floor now what? That is quite a lot of blood, you start to panic and feel dizzy. That’s way too much blood, have you been bleeding like this the whole time? If so then you’re screwed. Fuck, you’ll die if you don’t get medical attention but you can’t let him get in trouble for you being such an idiot and fuck you have to go to Rose. You limp into the elevator and hit the third floor button, accidently leaving a bloody fingerprint. To conceal your identity a little bit, you put your sunglasses back on and lean your head out the door to see if anyone is in the hallway. To your luck, it appears no one is around. Making your way to the left, you watch as the numbers on the doors climb upwards till you reach Room 324. Without any hesitation, you knock on the door and wait.

 

Your name is Karkat Vantas and trying to take a nap when you start hearing someone knocking. From the volume, it’s clear that it’s on someone else's door and that it totally isn’t your problem. But then the knocking doesn’t stop and now whatever hope you had of going to sleep is totally gone so you get up and stomp towards your door. You throw it open to find yourself looking at someone’s back, who is clearly knocking on Rose’s door.

“Hey, buddy, I don’t know what the fuck you think you’re doing, but you don’t live there, and the owner is probably not here so- jegus what the fuck happened to you?” You refrain from screeching as the guy turns around to reveal his torn up, mangled looking leg and blood soaked shirt.

He manages to say, “Don’t call the cops, dude,” before he collapses into your arms and now you’re holding a really tall, surprisingly light, really bloody dude and you don’t know what to do. What your instincts tell you to do however, is to pull the guy into your room, shut the door, put him on your bed, and stare at him blankly. Clearly the guy is unconscious, is injured, and needs help. So you should call the cops, right? No, he literally told you not to so now you have to heal this guy up and hope he doesn’t die on your bed.

You start by carefully cutting his shirt off with a pair of half working scissors and manage not to cut him. He winces as you slowly peel it off and attempt to throw it in your wastebasket, but it missed by a few feet and slaps onto your carpet. Hissing out a profanity, you rush to the bathroom, grab whatever crap you have in the medicine cabinet, and lay it all out on your coffee table. You mutter another profanity as you go to your mini fridge, scramble around for a bottle of water, and then go back to the dude lying on your bed. For the most part it looks like he just has a few scraps and superficial wounds, but the major issues are his really fucked up leg and giant cut on his chest. What the fuck? Was he fighting with swords? You stop thinking and carefully pour the water onto his chest to get it clean. His leg is a big problem, but it’s not bleeding as much as his chest so you’ll deal with it later. You manage to get your bed really wet and most of the blood off, but the drier, congealed crap doesn’t come off as easy. Should you even try to clean that stuff off? You shrug and delicately scrub that shit off, continuously pouring water on the wound and wiping it with a paper towel. This is when you go back to your coffee table and get some generic antibiotic ointment. You squeeze a lot of it onto your hand and promptly slather it onto the dude as you do your best to keep him still. You have no idea what the fuck you’re doing and man you should’ve just called the police but now it’s too late. Wait, what even are you doing now? You know how to heal this guy, although to be fair you probably needed to do that stuff before you could do this and- whatever shut the fuck up this guy is dying!  
Your patient shifts slightly but you hold him still with one hand as your other hand glows red and you hold it to his wound.

 

Your name is Karkat Vantas and you’re kind of freaking out. You did your best to fix the guy up, and your pretty gogdamn sure he’s gonna make it out okay, but now that the adrenaline is wearing off, your hands are shaking even more and your starting to realize just what the fuck just happened and wow there’s a lot of blood. Speaking of which, you just had to go clean all of the blood that this guy trailed, which was way too much and now the lobby smells like cleaning detergent and what if someone finds out? You collapse back onto your couch and hold your head in your hands.

“You’ve really done it this time, you’ve really fucked up,” you hiss at yourself, glancing back to the guy on your bed. 

Not to mention, he’s currently wearing  _ your _ pajama pants and  _ your  _ boxers even though they’re big on him and you swear you didn’t look at him, hell, you even tied a blindfold around your eyes as you cleaned him as best you could. Hopefully he won’t get an infection and die. You’re really not qualified for something like this. Sure, stopping him from bleeding out of the cut was easy enough, that was good, but the connection won’t last forever and you have to hope that your stitches are going to hold up when it starts to fade. You should’ve just called Kanaya, wait, shit, maybe you should just call Kanaya and she can- no, there’s a reason you didn’t go to the cops and it’s because this guy is probably a fugitive. Which begs the question…what are you going to do when he wakes up? Or when Rose gets back? Why was he knocking on her door?

You shake your head and stand up to start cleaning. You start with the medicine cabinet crap, and then manage to levitate your unknown guy who you’ve decided to call Asshat long enough to change the sheets, even though the mattress is definitely unsaveable, and you start to feel a little better. Asshat doesn’t move much, just lies still on the bed, breathes so shallow you have to check if he’s still alive sometimes. For someone who isn’t conscious, he’s strangely tense. It makes you wonder even more what Asshat’s deal is. Is he some government person who got in way over his head or maybe even a gang member? You didn’t really see a tattoo but you guess that’s probably just a stereotype. You’ve definitely watched too many movies.

Outside the wind still howls, making the whole situation seem a little worse, although you know that if it were any worse of a situation you’d just throw up. Gog is this boring. Asshat just lays there and you just sort of sit on your couch, facing the windows, which provide nothing but boredom. Maybe you should study or something. Ha fuck that. Instead, you sigh and take your phone out of your pocket, scrolling through your contact list till you find Kanaya’s name.

 

Your name is Kanaya Maryam and you’re hanging out at Terezi’s dorm, where you two are hanging out with Tavros and Nepeta. It’s strange because you haven’t seen any of them in a while, but when Terezi grabbed you by the arm and lead you back to her room, you really couldn’t resist hanging out with them. Also, you literally couldn’t resist because for as big and strong as you were, Terezi somehow was still able to drag you despite that she was all skin and bones. Not that you minded, it was nice to relax with some friends, even if you hadn’t seen them in a long time. So now you sit on Terezi’s bed with Terezi while Nepeta and Tavros sit on her roommate’s bed.

“I uh, have been doing a lot of thinking about my…. a lot of thinking about how I acted in the past and I’d like to um… say sorry that I was such a coward and that I never… that I didn’t stand up to Vriska when I should have,” the tallest among them looked down at his hands.

From beside him, Nepeta frowned and said, “Oh cmon Tafurros! You did great when you tried to stop Vriska! It was really brave.”

“But the thing is I didn’t stop her and… I should have…” He fidgeted with his hands some more.

“Tavros, as someone who knew Vriska the best, there was no way in hell you could’ve stopped her,” Terezi swings her cane over the side of the bed to point it at him. “I barely even stopped her and that was a nightmare.”

Nodding your assent, you smile at him, “Vriska is someone who isn’t really controllable. The only thing she understands is violence and even then nobody really knows. You did really good and you’re getting better.”

That seemed to have convinced him that everything was okay and he visibly breathes a sigh of relief, “Well uh, thanks you guys.”

In this heartfelt moment when you all are smiling at each other in comfortable silence and then your phone rings and ruins it, “I’m terribly sorry.”

You stand up and move to the door as you take the call, only briefly looking at the caller ID, “Hello, I’m don’t mean to be rude but I’m sort of in the middle of something.”

Karkat spluttered out, “Oh shit I’m sorry but I really need your help right now. Please Kanaya I need you to come to my dorm room right now this is really urgent- oh fuck! I’ve got to go but get here quickly!” 

With that, he hung up and you found yourself slightly panicking as you turn back to your friends, “I’m sorry but something urgent has come up and I need to leave.”

The first to say anything is Terezi, “It’s alright, we’ll just hang out some other time. See ya, Kanaya.”

As you exit the room you say goodbye, which is met by the goodbyes of Nepeta and Tavros. You turn down the hallway and get out of the building as fast as possible. The cold wind whips across your face and for a second you regret your life decisions but you keep moving forward into the unknown, following the lights overhead leading to Dorm C. When you get there, you are freezing and uncomfortable but push onwards until you’re knocking on Karkat’s door.

It opens immediately and he pulls you inside as he mutters an apologie. You notice there is someone shirtless, on his bed, who has stitches on his chest. Clearly, this is the reason he called you. Without wasting any time for questions, you go to the man and examine the extremely crude stitching job your best friend did. It would hold, but you should definitely re-do it. Your eyes trace downward and you hiss as you see his leg. It’s clumsily wrapped in bandages but you can see the condition it’s in. Setting down your bag, you pull out a flat, carved rock and crush it in your hand. Replacing it is a clear, thin, gelatin like substance neatly rolled up. Carefully, you undo the bandages and wince at the image.

The bone is definitely broken and it seems to have punctured through his muscle and skin in different locations to achieve a strange look of very large, very gross holes in his leg. For a second you’re nauseous but then you clamp it down and get to work. The wounds are already clean so it saves you some time as you wrap the roll of gelatin onto his leg to completely cover his lower leg. Briefly, your hands glow green as you touch the gelatin, causing it to expand and start injecting a type of anesthesia into his bloodstream. From behind you, you see Karkat furrowing his brow as he attempts to spread it faster throughout his body. Within a few minutes, your patient relaxes, which is your cue to keep going. You touch the gelatin again and this time it expands even more, straightening out his leg as the thin case bursts. While most of the now hard gelatin substance stays to keep the leg still, a little bit of the soft gelatin goes into the wounds and starts working. It will work on any internal damage and eventually will help speed up the healing process as the gelatin is absorbed into his body.

Done with his leg, you move back up to his chest. As previously evaluated, the stitches will hold, but are poorly done and there will be much more scar tissue than necessary. You frown as you crush another rock which is replaced by a medkit. From the kit you pull out a pair of medical scissors and carefully dismantle the stitches. While you work, Karkat keeps the blood from flowing out of the wound, and within a few silent minutes, neat, professional stitches hold your patient together.

Leaning back to examine him, you determine that he will not be dying anytime soon. You then turn to Karkat and stare pointedly at him. 

“Hey, don’t look at me like that! I don’t know him either!” He crossed his arms defensively.

“What do you mean you don’t know him?” Eyes wide, you find yourself throwing your arms out in exasperation.

Karkat looks at the ground and then growls, “He was knocking on Rose’s door while I was trying to take a nap so I came out and yelled at him but he just collapsed in my arms after saying not to call the cops.”

You give him a look of pure incredulity and then promptly sit down on his couch, still staring at him, “Why-”

“I don’t know!” His bottom lip trembles briefly and he mutters a profanity as he wipes at his eyes. “I don’t fucking know, Kanaya. I don’t know anything about this dude and gog what if we get in trouble and-”

Wrapping him in a hug, you breathe a sigh, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you upset. This is a difficult situation for both of us and I understand why you’re worried. I am too.”

He hugs you back and sniffles, “I just don’t want to get kicked out of here. I need this. My family needs this.”

Instead of saying anything, you pet the back of his head gently and wait for him to calm down a little bit. You get why he’s on the verge of crying. He’s stressed, confused, worried, and upset all at once and it’s overwhelming him. 

Disengaging from the hug, he gives you his best attempt at a smile, which has only gotten better over the past few years, “Thanks for helping me. You’re the best.”

You just smile back and sit on the couch together. He rests his head on your shoulder and eventually you both find yourselfs leaning against each other, sleeping.

 

Your name is Rose Lalonde and you’re halfway across the city when you get the call. Your partner looks back at you in annoyance at the notification.

“Seriously motherfucker?” He lazily drawls out, eyes narrowing.

Shooting him a glare, you turn away and tap the area just behind your ear, “Hello?”

“Hey toots, just thought you’d like to know, your Dave Strider kid popped up on your dorm surveillance cameras bleedin all over the place. I scrubbed the things clean so you don’t have anything to worry about but you owe me one,” he sounds distracted, as if he’s trying to juggle while still maintaining a conversation with you.

Blinking slowly, you find a slightly manic smile on your face, “Yes, of course, thank you Slick.”

“Oh and keep my kid out of this ya hear? I don’t want him getting mixed up in any of your buillshit,” voice gruff, he hangs up.

“Hey, motherfuckin Seer, you gonna help me finish?” Wacking his club into the guy’s skull once more, Gamzee stares at you blankly.

“Nope, gotta go,” unfazed, you launch yourself onto the fire escape and climb to the roof.

You would really rather not be doing such things with someone like your current associate, or doing those things at all, but you just can’t keep your hands clean when it comes to your line of work. It’s not like you just straight up murder people, that goes against whatever morals you still have left, so as of now, it’s unimportant. What is important however, is that Dave is alive and more or less okay although Slick did say he was bleeding everywhere. So, maybe not okay, but you should be able to get there in time to save him. 

Sprinting towards the roof at full speed, you pull something out of your bag and fling yourself off the roof. Instead of plummeting to the ground, your familiar grabs you and pulls you onto his back. Such are the benefits of being a witch who really doesn’t care of the boundaries of magic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I was on the fifth version of this dumb chapter I wrote "This seemed to be a theme with many of Rose’s friends/acquaintances/enemies as the only person she now saw was one Kanaya Maryam, who happened to be her forehead". Like, I'm sorry what? Her forehead? I meant to write forehead but ended up writing forehead what the fuck? HOly shit I did it again I meant to write roommate, not forehead Jesus on a bicycle. By the way I wrote this all today and quickly looked over it so it might kind of suck and I'm sorry for the slow pacing but it's hard to do so yeah


	4. Another Slow Paced Chapter That Is Admittedly Short Wow Such Good Chapter Titles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose, Kanaya, Karkat, and Dave in a room. What could go wrong? Honestly not that much but it manages to.

Your name is Rose Lalonde and you may have celebrated too soon. You’re currently in your dorm with no blood or brother in sight. Okay… where the fuck is he? You’re opening the door to your room while quietly panicking when the door behind you opens. When you look back, Karkat is standing there with blood on his hands glaring at you. He promptly grabs your arm pulls you into his room, where you discover your brother lying, injured, on Karkat’s bed. You rush over immediately but it seems like his wounds were all properly treated and you relax just a little bit.

“Okay so would you like to tell me who the fuck this is and why they’re so fucked up and were looking for you?” Karkat continues to glare at you, although his voice shakes.  
It takes you a moment to look at all the scars and process it all before you speak, “Yes, of course. I suppose I do have an explanation to give. I- well, this is my brother. His name is Dave. I haven’t seen him in about a year and from what I can guess… it’s because he… he’s been....”

You stop speaking so that your voice doesn’t betray the fact that the lump in your throat is currently threatening to make you cry. You don’t look away though, it’s important that you don’t, it’s important that you face facts. Karkat is silent in shock and once you figure you can speak again in that monotone you always take, you do so.

“He couldn’t, so, um, thank you for taking care of him. I’m sure he would’ve died otherwise and I- uh, just, thank you,” you clear your throat and look in the general direction of Karkat.

“Well that was certainly unexpected,” the unfamiliar voice makes you turn to find a very tall, very beautiful woman sitting on the couch.

A few seconds later and you relax as you realize who she is, “Oh, Kanaya. What are you doing here?”

She shrugs, “Karkat asked me to come immediately, so I did and treated your brother, but I couldn’t just leave my friend alone in this situation so I’ve stayed with him this whole time.”

“Oh,” you repeat, blinking slowly.

“Not to be a shitfuck but you’re explanation kind of sucked, wait no, it really fucking sucked. Why is he injured? Why didn’t he go to a hospital? Before he passed out he said not to call the cops what the hell is that about?” Karkat walks over to you as he growls out his questions.

Slowly, very slowly, you choose your words, “My brother, Dave, is in the custody of my father, who was- is very abusive. When my mother divorced him, as he is exceptionally smart, he played the victim, and managed to gain custody of my two brothers. He no longer had to play that facade and I guess… well, obviously the truth of the matter is that my brother was abused, I should’ve said something, but I didn’t and now he’s-”

You stop and take a deep breath, of course you should’ve known exactly why Dave disappeared, it was so obvious. You should’ve known, no, you did know you just were afraid to say anything. You were just a coward. Good going Lalonde, you almost got your brother killed. It’s not like it was very well hidden that his sunglasses covered black eyes most of time, or that the reason he wore a hoodie non-stop was probably because he had some sort of wound on them, self-inflicted or otherwise. At least, not very well hidden from you anyway, everyone else seemed pretty oblivious.

Arms are around you now, very bony and awkward, but it is nonetheless recognizable as a hug. It doesn’t even take you a second to turn and return the hug, although you don’t let yourself cry. This isn’t about you, it’s about Dave. From the corner of your eye you see Kanaya awkwardly watching you two and you give her a half hearted smile and motion for her to join you. With some hesitation, she does, and suddenly you are being hugged by two very warm, very attractive people, and you take a moment to just appreciate this moment of support. The hug lasts for a very long time, until you’ve calmed down and Karkat seems to have mellowed.

“Again, thank you, very much. I should, however, take over the care of my brother now,” you clear your throat again.

“While I do think that is a good idea, I also should advise you that moving him would certainly not do any good,” Kanaya says tentatively.

“Oh great, I’m stuck with Rose’s probably insufferable brother,” Karkat groans.

“I can guarantee he is certainly insufferable, but hopefully he will heal enough so that we can move him before he wakes up,” you give your friend a smile through the clusterfuck of emotions that is currently hurtling a million miles a minute throughout your brain.

 

Your name is Rose Lalonde and you have just been woken up to the screaming of one very terrified Karkat Vantas. When you open your eyes, you are greeted by the sight of Kanaya wielding a chainsaw, pointed at a wild eyed blond creature recognizable as your brother. You motion for Kanaya to quit with the chainsaw, and the noise in the room quiets almost immediately. Even Karkat has stopped screaming, which makes your brother relax visibly.

You take the opportunity to speak, “Dave.”

He looks at you, eyes still clearly showing his panic, “Dave, it’s me. Dave, it’s okay, you’re safe. Take deep breaths and relax.”

To your credit, you have absolutely no idea what you’re supposed to be doing in a situation where someone is clearly having something akin to a panic attack. Sure, you’ve had your fair share of them, but mostly you just kind of curled up into a ball and cried until you managed to calm down. However, that is clearly not going to work in this scenario.

To Dave’s credit, he seems to recognize you pretty quickly, and slowly gets off Karkat, staring at you the whole time, “Rose, I-”

A sudden sharp knock at the door makes him flash step into a corner, breathing hard. 

You react soon after, opening the door to find a tired dorm mate staring at you, “Shut the fuck up would you? Jesus fucking christ, you fucking magic users are all the same.”

“First off, fuck you, second off, fuck you,” you shove a middle finger in his face and then promptly close the door. 

When you turn back, Karkat has gotten up, Kanaya standing in front of him protectively, and Dave looks sick. Understandably, the room reads as really goddamn tense.

“Dave,” you start a sentence for the fourth time in a row with his name, as if someone forgot it, “I need you to calm down, okay? I need you to just calm down a little bit.”

By some miracle, probably due more to Dave than yourself, he inched his way away from the corner and comes to stand relatively very close to you. It’s obvious that whatever adrenaline had got him up before was fading as pain started to crawl into his face and he became even more shaky. Cautiously you approach him and help him back to the bed, where you gently lower him to lay back down on.

“I’m sorry,” is the first thing he really says, which is directed at Karkat, “I really am sorry, I just, well, you know how it is sometimes, my dude.”

You laugh, this hoarse, worried laugh, and it feels good to know that maybe, just maybe, Dave is going to be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not gonna lie this chapter isn't great I kind of dug myself into a hole with that last chapter I had no idea what to do after that anyway disregard my lack of punctuation and hey I'm sorry for the really slow pacing most of this chapter was just dialogue I promise the next chapter will be much longer cause this one was really short and also more action oriented.


	5. The Fault in Our Useless Lesbians

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose searches for her father, the gays love Mario Kart, and the two most useless lesbians share a bed.

Your name is Rose Lalonde and you are scared. It’s hardly been long since you’re brother came to you, which is enough to deal with on its own, and yet now you have to deal with the fact that your father may come looking. The fear is enough to set you on edge constantly. Every sound makes you jump, every touch makes you panic, every window is a liability. Logically, you know this is silly. Even if he  _ does  _ come, the odds are in your favor, considering he never was very good at magic and you are certainly very good at that. However, you can’t keep yourself from wondering whether you’ll go to Karkat’s dorm one day and there will be blood everywhere. It’s enough that you go to your sister about it.

“Dad?” She sets the bag of groceries on her counter. “What do you want with that human piece of garbage?”

You sit on the island behind her, swinging your legs… you still haven’t told her about Dave, “I was just wondering… since I never knew him. Can I not be interested in the whereabouts of my own father?”

Roxy looks back at you briefly, “I mean, yah go ahead but like… why would I know? He’s shit and I don’t want to know about him.”

She starts to take things out of the bags and you huff impatiently, “You keep tabs on everyone in our family, which includes a whole bunch of people we’ve never met. I don’t believe that you wouldn’t at least know  _ where  _ he is. That’s ridiculous.”

“Look, Rose,” she spins around, frowning. “I know where he is, vaguely. He lives in the Hauss District. Hell, he probably lives in some shitty apartment where he can do whatever he wants.”  
Your sister narrows her eyes at some distant object, purses her lips, and then turns back around to put the groceries away. Later, she tries to play it off, but you know not to ask again.

 

So that’s how you ended up, more or less, stalking the streets of Hauss District. It was drizzling outside, but it should’ve been snowing. Your breath is easy to see, and yet little drops of water are constantly hitting the top of your hood and making you more miserable. It’s an overcast, gray, dreary day, and you are not having a good time. Your shoes are soaked from the water that has failed to drain from this morning’s torrent of rain, and you’re starting to question why you came here. It’s been nearly seven hours you’ve been out, and you still don’t have any leads on your father. One of the more frustrating things is that Hauss District is one of the largest, poorest, dirtiest places on the planet. It’s been six fucking times now that you’ve had the punch a one dude or another in the face.

Once you hit the official seven hours mark, you slide into the nearest bar and walk around with a beer asking about your father. Everyone you ask is horribly unhelpful, and you end up smashing the full beer bottle over someone’s head and then throwing down with nearly the entire place. You get kicked and thrown quite few times, but at the end of it you’re the one sitting dejectedly at the bar while the bouncer drags unconscious bodies out onto the street.

The bartender takes one look at you, frowning and wet and bleeding from the head, and pulls out a bottle of whiskey. He motions the bottle toward you but you shake your head. You really can’t afford to go into that rabbit hole again. Literally and figuratively because you are a broke college student surviving on instant ramen and mountain dew. The guy just shrugs and puts it away as he goes back to bartending or whatever. If you were being really honest, you would say that this might be a hopeless endeavor. In this district alone live more than a million people. No one is going to know about your father… or care about him anyway. You begin to understand how what happened to Dave could go unnoticed.

 

When you’re about to enter the building of your dorm, you realize something. You’re still bleeding, albeit very slowly, and you kind of look like a mess. Which is how you end up sitting half naked on Kanaya Maryam’s bed as she cleans you up. When you knocked on her door, she pulled you in immediately and started her work. She hasn’t spoken a word to you, and you haven’t said anything to her either. It’s not like you’re not friends with her, considering the whole Dave situation, but it is very awkward. Her roommate was out, thankfully, and yet you are staining Kanaya’s sheets with your blood as she very delicately, very purposefully bandages your wounds. And you are very, very gay.

It doesn’t take long until she’s done, and at this point you just turn around on the bed and watch her. She looks a mixture between angry and concerned as if she doesn’t know which one to be. You hate this, but you don’t know how to take care of yourself, and the nurse would probably report your injuries. 

“You know that I’m not a real doctor, right?” She narrows her eyes.

You find this very comical, but keep your face straight, “Well, yes. However, you were the only one I could go to.”

“Or maybe a real doctor,” Kanaya throws her hands up in the air as if she’s frustrated, but it lacks enthusiasm.

“That wasn’t really an option. I didn’t want to get more people involved than there had to be,” you shrug.

“And I had to be?” She stands up with your shirt in her hand.

“Hey!” You half-heartedly yell as she throws it in a small waste basket and starts rummaging through her closet.

A few seconds later and she’s thrown a too large shirt at you. It’s a safe assumption that she wants you to put it on, so you do.

“I don’t know what you’ve gotten yourself into, and honestly I don’t want to know,” the mage turns to glare at you. “But I will help you if you need it.”

After Kanaya yells at you for a little longer, you walk back to your dorm with her and the two of you visit Karkat and your brother. The two met each other a few days ago and they’ve already established a relationship defined by mutual hatred and rivalry. Currently, they’re playing Mario Kart and Karkat is in first place with Dave in last. They played Monopoly with you and Kanaya yesterday, and that was a disaster, as are all Monopoly games. The day before, they played Parcheesi, which ended with Karkat screaming bloody murder and flipping the board as he lost  _ again _ . You’ve never met two people more suited to the enemies to friends to lovers trope in your life. When you mention this to Kanaya she giggles and the sheer pleasure that you get from that simple sound makes you a little nervous. You’ve never felt so gay since Jade… well, you’re still a little gay for Jade but that’s fine.

At first, you were worried that Karkat’s loud and extreme personality would frighten or trigger Dave, but he seems fine with it. If anything, actually, he seems comforted by it. You find it a little strange, but you wouldn’t know what his situation was like, really. He hasn’t talked to you about it, which is fine, considering everything. It bugs you not to know, but you can’t push with this. You just can’t.

Even though Kanaya says that’s Dave has healed enough to be moved to your dorm, you’ve held back on it. He probably shouldn’t be left alone too long which makes Karkat uniquely qualified to take care of him. Since he studies blood magic, there isn’t much that he can do in classes. It’s really more of a practice and perfect kind of deal, as opposed to learn a lot to gain a better understand deal. Which is why he only has the occasional lecture instead of a full schedule like everyone else. On those occasional lectures, Dave seems to be able to manage himself for a little, but then get all nervous and on edge and it takes a while for Karkat to calm him down.

You’re shocked out of your trail of thought as you feel pressure on your side. When you look over, Kanaya is leaning against you with her eyes closed and her head on your shoulder. At some point, you had switched over to a movie, which was of course a rom-com, and she must’ve gotten bored. You do your best to not blush but through the darkness you can see Dave waggle his eyebrows over his sunglasses. Sticking out your tongue, you give him the middle finger and start watching the movie. When the credits start rolling, Karkat is crying, Dave has a neutral expression, you’re trying to understand what you just watched, and Kanaya is snoring.

Once he stops crying, Karkat tells you to take Kanaya over to your dorm and she can sleep there. You begin to protest as Dave waggles his eyebrows again but Karkat just shoves you out of his room with Kanaya in your arms. You guess this means Kanaya is with you tonight. It’s a bit of a maneuver you have to do to open your door yet keep yourself from dropping her, but in the end you manage to get inside your room without too much trouble. The lights turn on automatically in greeting as you enter so you go to set your friend down onto your bed. For some reason, you’ve never had a roommate even though the room was clearly built to have two people living in it judging by the size. It’s times like now that you’re grateful for it. Since she’s asleep, you undress and get ready to sleep at the foot of your bed. When you look up, you find a bleary eyed Kanaya staring up at you.

“What happened?” She slurs her words enough to sound drunk.

You grin at her, “Well well well look who’s awake. You fell asleep on me and now you’re sleeping in my room.”

It was a joke, of course. She was free to go whenever she wanted. In fact, she most certainly didn’t have to stay the night or anything… except you wanted her to. You wanted her to a lot.

“Oh okay. In that case, you should come over here and like sleep with me,” at this point she pats the bed gently.

She laughs at your expression but you try to play it off so you say cooly, “We don’t even know each other that well.”

“What’s a little cuddling between two friends?” When you look up, she’s blushing like a mad man as if the two of you haven’t been two useless lesbians constantly flirting since the day you met.

Kanaya’s grin is lazy and her eyes tell the story of exhaustion, but she’s staying awake to get you into bed with her. Sure, you want to… but also, it’s probably not the best idea. You sigh and walk around the bed. Once you’re in range, she grabs you by the wrists and pulls you into your bed.

“There, now you can’t get out,” you can feel her smile against your neck.

Her arms are wrapped around your torso as she faces you, legs entangled in yours, your face buried in her hair, and you couldn’t feel any more embarrassed. Yet once you spell the lights off, you manage to relax and fall asleep.

 

When you wake up, it’s still dark outside and Kanaya is still pressed against you, arms around each other. You would get up, but there’s no way you could get up that doesn’t involve disturbing Kanaya, and you don’t want to do that. Instead, you resign yourself to trying to go back to sleep, except of course that doesn’t work either.

“Are you alright?” The voice startles you.

You look down to find Kanaya staring up at you, “Yes, I’m quite alright… why are you awake?”

She shrugs, “I don’t know. I guess when you woke up, I woke up too.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” you frown.

It’s then that she smiles at you like you’re the biggest fool in the world and you couldn’t be more in love.

 

Your name is Marcus Strider and you think you know where that disgusting thing posing as your daughter is. She got away from you a few days ago, but it won’t be long until you’ll have her again. Not long indeed. You stand on Skaia University’s campus staring up at Dorm C. It’s no mystery why she would be here; her sister is here too. A sneer comes upon your face at the thought. Fucking faggots, the whole lot of your children.

When you enter the building, no one’s around. So, you walk up to the desk. On it is a book of names and room numbers. Perfect. You scan it until you find Rose’s name. She must be there. This will do just fine. The elevator takes you up to the third floor, and when you find her room, you almost pick the lock, but then you hear voices inside.

Both of them are female. You don’t recognize either of them, but one of them must be your daughter’s. Where is she? She has to be here. You know Rose has been looking for you.She  _ has  _ to be here. If she’s not here, then Rose will know where she is. Shaking, you move your hand away from the door and exit the building. You’ll get her when she’s alone. And then she’ll pay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one isn't action oriented but I do promise at least a little more action in the next one.


	6. Excuse Me But Like, That's An Act Of Homophobia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roxy investigates, Rose and Kanaya are clearly gay for each other, Karkat has a crush on Dave, and a bitch attacks.

Your name is Roxy Lalonde and your father is missing. He hasn’t returned to his apartment in a few days, which isn’t exactly uncommon, but he took his sword this time and with Rose probably out looking for him… Let’s just say you’re a bit concerned about what that bastard is going to do next. It’s not like his actions haven’t been suspicious before this, but he at least tries to delay you. This time, however, he didn’t do any of his usual things, just straight up disappeared. You try to rule out magic, but even he could manage to use a simple teleportation spell. 

Which is how you end up in the Hauss District snooping through his apartment. You’ve never actually been in there before, just watched from afar sometimes. It’s only been a few months since you found where he lives, and you haven’t had the chance to go in yet. You would’ve sooner regardless of whether your father was there, but you figure your brother managed to get out of this situation since he should’ve turned eighteen recently.

When you actually enter the apartment, you pale. Glass is carelessly strewn across the ground,  there’s furniture literally ripped apart, trash covers the floors, and holes litter the walls. You investigate the kitchen. In it is a broken stove, a half working microwave, and a barely holding on fridge. When you open it, you find a bunch of swords. When you open the freezer, a bunch of smuppets fall out. You’re not sure what you expected if you’re being honest. After closing the fridge, you head to the bedrooms. The first one is what you can only assume to be your father’s. The bed is stained and unmade, clothes haphazardly thrown across the room, but it isn’t in nearly as bad shape as the rest of the place. When you rummage through his drawers, you find a bunch of condoms and random crap. Some of the condoms are used.

Then you find yourself in what you assume to be Dave’s old bedroom. Or maybe not old. As you turn on the light, you notice something almost immediately. The window is wide open, and when you look out it leads to a fire escape. You make a note to investigate that later. When you comb over the room, you find a bunch of hoarded junk food in a closet, three gallon jugs of apple juice, ripped clothes, a guitar, a DJ turntable, a crappy computer with a drawing tablet hooked up to it, and a pile of covers and smuppets serving as a bed. This bedroom doesn’t seemed to have been touched since Dave was in here. Except, of course, the window. Carefully, you climb out the window onto the fire escape. The first thing you notice is that there’s dark blood covering the railings. As you climb up you start to feel uneasy. Five stories from the top and there’s a surplus of blood on the floor. You nearly throw up. When you calm down you start climbing again. At the top, there’s more blood. Maybe Dave didn’t leave as long ago as you thought.

 

Your name is Dave Strider and you can feel Karkat’s gaze on the back of your head. It’s nine in the morning, and you’re just trying to eat your cereal, but here he is, incessantly trying to get your attention. When you turn around, he looks away and tries to pretend he wasn’t looking at you. If you’re being honest, it’s a little annoying.

Eventually you turn around to him and say, “Look, dude, if you’ve got something to say just say it. This whole ‘Oh I’m not looking’ thing is getting kind of annoying. I’m not a piece of art to ogle at- wait, no. Yes, I am a piece of art. My body was sculpted by the gods, my chiseled abs a marvel. I am the best piece of art this world has ever seen! My chin was made from marble, my handsome face from bronze, my pecs from diamond, my d-”

“Oh my gog will you shut the fuck up,” Karkat gets up and stalks towards you, “You look like shit, not art. You’re not even that handsome.”

“So… you admit that I’m handsome?” You quirk one your eyebrows up suggestively.

He rolls his eyes, huffs, and then crosses his arms, “No, you’re uglier than my ass, Strider. I was looking at you because just like you can’t look away from a train wreck, I can’t take my eyes off you.”

“Well if you were that into me you could’ve just said so,” you smirk as he groans. “No homo though. I’m not gay, that’s gross. I mean, like, have you ever watched a train wreck? How do you know that you can’t take your eyes away from it? What kind of shit have you seen, huh? Did you cause it? Huh, wait where are you going? Karkat!”

For some reason, his expression soured even more than normal part way through you talking and he left the room.

 

Your name is Rose Lalonde and Karkat just walked in on you and Kanaya sleeping together.

“Jegus fucking christ Lalonde! You’re sleeping with my best fucking friend now?” He sticks out his tongue in disgust.

Both of you are too tired to move so you just hum and continue running your hands through Kanaya’s hair, “What do you want?”

The mage just stares at you and then rolls his eyes, “You’re brothers a homophobic asshole and I want him out of my room.”

You stop moving your hands, “Oh, I had forgotten about that.”

“You forgot to tell me that the gayest person on the planet, me, would be stuck with a fucking homophobe?” He throws his hands in the air and growls.

“I’m sorry about that,” you say quietly, trying to come up with words to explain the situation. “Dave himself is gay, actually.”

“Ha ha nice joke Lalonde now, can you get him out of my room?” His voice is dry and he sounds hurt.

“I’m serious, Karkat. I once walked in on him making out with one of my best friends in high school. Dave is gay. He just pretended he wasn’t when our dad found out. If you haven’t picked it up by now, our father is the epitome of toxic masculinity, homophobia, transphobia, racism, and every other shitty thing out there,” in response to your voice rising, Kanaya starts rubbing your back in an attempt to calm you.

His bushy eyebrows shoot up in surprise, then furrow as he struggles to decipher his feelings, “Okay.”

It’s at this point that he leaves the room. You exchange looks with Kanaya. She looks concerned.

“Dave is trans, right?” You tense at the question, but relax instantly as you remember who you’re talking to.

You kiss her forehead, “Yeah.”

 

Your name is Karkat Vantas and you have a crush on Dave Strider.  Of course, he’s been massively fucked up in the head by his abusive father, so now he thinks that being gay is disgusting and everyone gay should burn in hell or something.

“Being gay is gross. Boys can’t be with other boys and girl can’t be with other girls. It’s just disgusting. Men have to take care of their woman and their woman has to listen to them. That’s how it’s always been and that’s just how it should be,” Dave fucking Strider says straight to your face when you enter the room again.

He’s playing Mario Kart and just nonchalantly throwing hurtful comments every fucking where. You join him in the game if only to find a nonverbal way to show how angry you are. Annoyingly enough, you want to kiss him and then strangle him. Or maybe strangle him and then kiss him. Hell, why not at the same time?

“Being a little bitch is gross but I don’t say anything about you do I?” You hiss back at him.

You are very purposefully annihilating him. He doesn’t say anything but you can tell by the way he holds the controller and presses the buttons that he’s frustrated. It makes you a little satisfied. You feel bad for him, but at the same time you can’t get over the fact that he thinks that you should go get fucked.

“Mature, dude,” he mutters under his breath as he blue shells you. “It’s not a secret that all homosexuals are gonna burn in hell.”

There it is. That’s what you were waiting for. Without hesitating, you turn your head from the screen and for some reason he looks at you and you speak.

“I guess I’ll see you there, huh?” You growl.

The sound of you crossing the finish line accompanies the awkward tension hanging between you. After a few seconds, he throws down the controller and goes to the door. You watch him go to open the door, stop, curse, then turn back around and lock himself in the bathroom. 

Your name is Marcus Strider and finally, finally, a girl exits your daughter’s room and she’s alone. Immediately, you pounce. When you enter, she’s not facing you but you know she senses you. By the time she turns around you have her by the throat with her feet off the ground. She doesn’t look all that surprised by it, but the fear is clear in her eyes. 

“Where you two fucking or something?” You hiss out through gritted teeth.

She doesn’t respond, just kicks you between your legs and tackles you to the ground. You push her off easily enough, quickly taking your sword out of your inventory. In her hands are two black metal knitting needles. They crack and hiss with an unseen energy. After circling each other for a second, you pounce. She anticipates it, but you still manage to cut her shoulder pretty good. If you’re anything, you’re fast. Rose drops onto her haunches and loops a piece of yarn around your leg. It’s surprisingly strong and you go tumbling. You kick out blindly at her and when you connect with something you hear her skid across the floor. When you get up, she’s already pulling on her yarn again, which was attached to her needles. This time, you keep your balance as she pulls you forward, and as soon as your close enough, you strike. At the same time you cut into her chest, she steps forward and a needle goes straight through your eye. Immediately, she pulls back, holding her chest, and you yowl as you stumble back. You hear a chainsaw revving, decide it’s time to go, and flash step out.

 

Your name is Rose Lalonde and your sitting on your bed as Kanaya heals you up for the second time in two days. Her brows are furrowed angrily, barely restraining her anger. You managed to convince her to tell Dave, but you failed with Karkat so now he’s pacing around your room with his arms crossed and emitting a low growl. You’re trying not to think about what would’ve happened if Kanaya hadn’t come back. Of course, you fail and Karkat’s by your side in an instant, holding your hand and trying to make you feel better. Kanaya just tenses more as she works.

After a while, she stops and holds a shirt out; so, you so you put it on. She sits to your left, holding your other hand. Karkat hasn’t stood up since he sat down, and he hasn’t let go of your right hand either. You close your eyes and lean against Kanaya. She lowers you down to lay on the bed and Karkat follows. There you are, your torso against Kanaya’s, Karkat curled up to your side, Kanaya running her hands through your hair. Surrounded by a chainsaw wielding medic and an angry blood mage, you feel safe.

 

Your name is Kanaya Maryam and you haven’t left Rose’s side since you found her in her room squaring off against a tall blond dude. She’s sleeping on you now, with Karkat to your right, and neither of you feel comfortable leaving her. When she was still awake, she didn't speak, and you weren’t about to make her so you let her rest. It doesn’t mean you won’t whisper quietly to Karkat about it though.

“What even happened?” He sounds tired and angry.

“I’m not sure. I had left and then realized I hadn’t thanked Rose for letting me stay the night, and outside the door I heard yelling. When I took out my chainsaw and opened the door, a man was stumbling away from Rose, holding his eyes. After he disappeared, I started treating Rose. That’s when I texted you,” you hold one of Karkat’s hand as the other holds Rose.

He stays quiet for a while, “How badly did she get hurt?”

You shut your eyes to think about it, “She has a deep wound on her chest and another on her shoulder, not to mention the countless bruises. I can only guess that she fractured a few ribs and bones. She’ll recover, but it won’t be for a while till she’s full strength. If I’m being honest I’m more worried about her mental health. Being attacked in your room by your father when you thought you were safe? It puts you on edge. I don’t think she’ll ever think of this place the same.”

“Rose is strong though, right? She’s been in tons of fights. How is this one any different?” He asks the questions but he sounds as if he already knows the questions.

Your hand squeezes his, “This was a safe space for her, and now it’s simply the place where she was attacked and could’ve been killed.”

 

Your name is Rose Lalonde and when you escape Karkat and Kanaya and finally get back to the bunker, your team is freaked out. Nepeta is trying to break up a fight between Sollux and Aradia who are fighting about the proper magical spell for cleaning a toilet. Somehow it has gotten so heated that they are literally just standing up and screaming at each other. You will never understand them. 

When you walk in, Aradia starts to ask you what you thought about it and then stopped. They all did. From what you know, you look like absolute shit. You’re wearing a hoodie over a tank top and sweatpants. Not to mention your untied, dirty sneakers. Nepeta is the first one to move. With a confidence you rarely see in her, she picks you up and sits with you on the couch. Aradia and Sollux follow uneasily.

Without them asking, you tell them what happened. While Aradia and Sollux fight over what to do, Nepeta stays with you, her eyes soft and worried. You’ve had enough of people doing that today so you do your best to tell her your fine. Clearly, you’re not, and clearly, she knows you’re not. Instead of reprimanding you for lying to her, she nods and hugs you.

A few hours later and Nepeta sits with you on the fire escape, leaning your torso’s against the railing. Your other two teammates are still arguing inside, even though the volume and lessened considerably. The wind is calming, and the setting of the sun sets you at ease. Neither of you say anything. You’re glad that at least one person understands that you just want quiet and peace right now.


End file.
